The Oddfellow Theater will present “The Stooge – A Troubled Clown For Troubled Times,” a play combining social commentary with physical comedy written and performed by world renowned variety artist Michael Lane Trautman. “The Stooge” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 28, at the theater in Buckfield. Doors will open at 7 p.m. Tickets to the work in progress are $5 for all seats.

The play shows the cartoon world of a clown. The clown, compelled to entertain, attempts to do this by playing the piano and performing a variety of simple circus skills – though not without some difficulty due to the willful antics of his hat and cane, which seem to have lives of their own. Even his body rebels against him, refusing to remain symmetrical and regurgitating dozens of pingpong balls.

The main character eventually gains a semblance of control over himself and his props, only to have the real world intrude in increasingly disruptive ways. Finally, it is no longer possible to shut out the insanity. In the end, the clown must make a choice: to try and hide in his room, or to enter the “real” world and become a part of the solution to the problems facing us all.

Trautman has been performing around the world since 1976 and has worked at times as a visual comic, performance artist, new vaudevillian, mime, physical comedian, storyteller, magician and clown. He has appeared at the New York International Festival of Clown Theater, Festival D’Ete in Quebec, the General Jackson Showboat at Opryland USA, the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He was featured on “WOW! The Most Awesome Acts On Earth,” an ABC television special, and “The Statler Brothers Show” on TNN. From October 1999 through June 2000, Trautman was the star clown in the national tour of “OOPS! The Big Apple Circus Stage Show.”

Tickets are available at Northeast Bank in Buckfield, or may be obtained by calling the Oddfellow Theater box office at 336-3306. Box office hours are Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Fridays from noon to 5 p.m. The theater is on Route 117 in Buckfield. More information is available at www.oddfellow.com.